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Verdict in corruption case against Ershad June 18

Court Correspondent
A Dhaka court yesterday fixed June 18 for pronouncing verdict of a corruption case filed 16 years back against former president and Jatiya Party (JP) Chairman HM Ershad.
Another court will decide today whether the final report (FRT) of a corruption case against Beximco Holdings Ltd Chairman Sohel F Rahman, its Vice-chairmen Salman F Rahman, former managing director (MD) of Arab Bangladesh Bank Ltd CM Koyes Sami and seven others will be accepted.
ERSHADCASE
Judge Golam Mortuza Majumder of die Special Court for Dhaka Division set the date for delivering die verdict after completion of arguments from the prosecution and the defence.
During the hearing, the prosecution told the court that they were able to prove the corruption charges regarding the purchase of electronic news gathering (ENG) equipment against Ershad beyond doubts and prayed for the highest punishment to the accused for committing the offences.
The defence appealed to the court for their client's acquittal, saying that the prosecution utterly failed to prove the charges brought against their client.
The court recorded statements of 21 prosecution witnesses including the complainant and the investigation officer (10) of the case during trial.
The case was filed with the Tejgaon Police Station in 1992.
According to die case proceed ings, Ershad during his tenure as the president allegedly directed the authorities concerned to purchase ENG equipment worth about Tk 2.93 crore for personal use although all broadcasting facilities were available at his secretariat.
Ram Mohon Nath, an official of now defunct Bureau of AntiCorruption (BAO, also the IO of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court on September 15,1994.
The trial of the case began on March 29,2003.
Earlier, Ershad was acquitted of five graft cases and a gold smugglingcase.
SALMAN CASE
After scrutinising the case documents, Judge Mohammad Azizul Haque of the Senior Special Judge’s Court will pass the order on the probe report that cleared Salman and odier accused of the charges.
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Assistant Director Mahbubul Alam filed the case with the Motijheel Police Station against 10 people including Salman and Sohel on October 1 last year on charges of misappropriatingTk 191.39 crore.
The complainant alleged that the accused showed 151.51 acres of land in Gazipur as security for getting loans, although the lands belong to the government and others.
The accused include former AB Bank Ltd MD Abu Hanif, former officials of the bank MA Awal and Tawhidu] Islam, Beximco Holdings Ltd Directors Iqbal Ahmed, MA Qasem, and Osman Kaiser Chowdhury and its ex-official Binoy Krishna Nath.
ACC Assistant Director Mojibur Rahman, also the IO of die case, submitted the FRT to the Dhaka CMM's Court on June 5.
In the probe report, die 10
mentioned that the case was filed against the 10 for resorting to fraudulence to obtain a bank loan ofTk 191.39 crore.
But the charges brought against the accused were not proved, the IO said adding that the accused paid the loans taken from the bank.
The IO appealed to the court for discharging the accused from the charges.
The former bank officials were accused in the case for providing the loans without checking the documents, which later were found out to be forged.